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Musicmystery -> RE: Signs say Pence is running -- despite his denial (8/7/2017 5:59:49 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AtUrCervix
quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery
Pence, the Times notes, has been quietly establishing an independent power base, “cementing his status as Mr. Trump’s heir apparent and promoting himself as the main conduit between the Republican donor class and the administration.” Cramming his schedule with meetings, Pence has evaded warnings from fellow party members, and formed his own political fund-raising committee, the Great American Committee, which has shadowed America First Action, Trump’s primary outside political group, raising more in disclosed donations. Pence has also departed from the vice-presidential tradition of installing a government veteran as his chief of staff, and appointed political operative Nick Ayers, who has experience working on political campaigns, but not within the federal government.
Despite Pence and the White House’s breathy claims that the vice president is a zealous Trumpian acolyte, the Times’s report reflects broader concerns about the future of the administration. Six months into his presidency and Trump, now in Bedminster, New Jersey, for the next two weeks (“not a vacation - meetings and calls!”), has passed no major legislation, despite his party controlling the entire government. His popularity is near record lows, Congress is hurtling toward a potential shutdown over budget negotiations, and the Justice Department’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia is accelerating. Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller impaneled a grand jury in Washington, D.C., in the latest sign that the F.B.I. probe is moving toward potential indictments.
Consequently, it’s not just Democrats who are lambasting Trump; a schism is forming between the president and his own party. According to the Times, Pence isn’t alone in scoping out possibly running in 2020. Senators Tom Cotton and Ben Sasse have already headed to Iowa this year, a traditional trip for those sounding out White House runs, and Ohio governor John Kasich, who ran unsuccessfully in 2016, has publicly refused to rule out another campaign. “He’ll continue to speak out and lead on health care and on national security issues, trade policy, economic expansion and poverty,” John Weaver, a political adviser to the governor, said.
If reports that certain Republicans are running for the Oval Office are being sidelined as speculative, there’s no doubt that other members of Trump’s own party are working to corral him. Both houses of Congress passed legislation constraining Trump’s ability to negotiate with Russia without their input, sending him a sanctions bill with a veto-proof majority, which he reluctantly signed. More recently, two G.O.P. senators joined Democrats in proposing legislation that would prevent Trump from firing Mueller. And Republicans backed parliamentary procedures to prevent Trump from firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the August recess, a move that many fear could be a first step toward Mueller’s dismissal.
While the G.O.P. has grown less timid in its efforts to place limits on Trump’s powers, which he shows few signs of respecting himself, it has also become clearer that the president remains disinterested in the actual responsibilities of the job. And Trump’s inability to grow into the office is beginning to frustrate members of his own party, especially in the intelligence community. The New Yorker reports that senior G.O.P. members are increasingly vexed at Trump’s inability to grasp the nuances of foreign policy, and are finally starting to speak out in exasperation. “[Trump is] impatient, decision-oriented, and prone to action,” Michael Hayden, a retired four-star general who previously led both the C.I.A. and the N.S.A., said. “He just doesn’t have an interest in the world.”
Trump’s parochial presidency has been colored by a series of foreign-policy howlers. When British Prime Minister Theresa May came to America in January, the H was dropped from her name on the agenda three times. Teresa May, The New Yorker points out, is a soft-porn actress known for her films “Leather Lust” and “Whitehouse: The Sex Video.” Last month, the White House succeeded in calling Xi Jinping the president of the “Republic of China”—which is the island of Taiwan—rather than the leader of the People’s Republic, the Communist mainland. The two nations have been adversaries in Asia for more than half a century. The Trump administration also misidentified Shinzo Abe as the president of Japan—he’s the prime minister—and called the prime minister of Canada “Joe” instead of Justin Trudeau.
As geopolitical tensions intensify, misidentifying foreign leaders, even as porn stars, is at the softer end of Trump’s capacity for errors. Leaked transcripts of Trump’s conversations with the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Australia highlight the more consequential impact of his ignorance. Both, however, evidence the president’s enduring inability to fulfill the role in which he has found himself, improbably, elected to serve. However his tenure winds down, the party will need somebody waiting in the wings. It is to Pence’s benefit to indignantly forswear any interest in the job. It is to the country’s benefit that he at least prepare himself for the possibility.
More: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/mike-pence-swears-hes-not-running-for-trumps-second-term
Not EVEN gonna read.....WTF...of COURSE he's running!!!
Until I'm DEAD....I'm always running for MY next gig!
Yep.
But as you saw, some don't see it so clearly.
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